Ask Lafeber

swapping mates

I have a pair of parrot finches that are building a second nest after abandoning the first. The female fights off the male when he tries to mount her. I introduced a second female and the male immediately copulated with her. she seemed more submissive than the prior female. My question is should I leave the new female to pair with him, or will it be a problem since the other female paired naturally.

Hi,

You can only have one male & female in the cage, so I would remove the female that keeps fighting with him. It does sound like the other female is more compatible with him. In the wild they would choose a mate, so often they do not like the mate we choose for them.

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda